On the high plain of Piteștil in Argeș county around the year 1850, the domain belonged to the Petricari family. The history has it that this family would connect to the Davila family at the end of the 19th century. The Petricaris were a simple middle ranked Romanian boyar family. Ion (Jean) Petricari (1851 - 1919) , a career military, distinguished in the Independence War of 1877, and up to 1885, close member of His Majesty Carol I’s court, marries in 1887, Elena Davila.

The Davila family history in the Principalities starts with Carol Davila, an Italian by origin, hero in the Independence War, close relation to king Carol I, founder of the emergency medical system in Romania, who marries Ana Racoviță, a descendant of the old Romanian Golescu family. This allows Davila to owe and buy land and other properties. Four years later, in 1865, their daughter Elena Davila is born.

In 1902, Jean Petricari, resigns from chief commander of the Army’s Arsenal and together with his wife settle at Izvoru.

The story of the domain continues as the couple found the first free rural hospital in the Principalities and building in 1905 the present mansion. Situated in a forest-like park, the mansion is built in the German fashion. All three levels were full of rooms stately decorated, the place soon becoming the center of Romanian aristocracy to spend weekends and holidays. A large hall and receiving spaces were situated on the ground floor, office and bedrooms on the first floor. Nearby the mansion a small guest house was built to be used by close friends and members of the Royal family.

The landscape design of the large park was started in 1904, following the plans of the French architect E. Redont. The plan being preserved in the National Archives of the Arges county.

In the beginning of the 20th century Jean and Elena Petricari are chosen to teach prince Carol II and princess Elena. The Izvoru domain is mentioned as the place where fencing lessons were given by the old general to the prince, while Elena was teaching good manners. Elena Davila was part of Queen Mary’s court together with other ladies such as Martha Bibescu, Maria Cantacuzino.

In 1916, as Romania entered the First World War, Jean Petricari, general, is dispatched as an officer to the Grand Italian General Headquaters. He lives to see the end of the war and the Great Union, before dying in 1919.

After his death, Elena, manages the domain and his husband’s fortune. She dedicates herself to charity in the rural areas, building on the domain of Izvoru a monument dedicated to the war heroes, an arts and crafts school for the local community, two schools and two kindergardens. During the Second World War, the domain houses refugees from Bassarabia.

In 1947, the domain is taken by the communist state and turned at first into a CAP (local agricultural headquater) and afterwards into an orphanage. In the beginning of the 90s the buildings were in a satisfactory state. However, as a result of a failed restoration project initiated by the local authorities using French funds, the mansion is consolidated using concrete. The restoration plans were never carried through, the domain being vandalized by the locals. Currently the guest house and the mansion are ruined. The domain was given back to the owners and is private property.